The Coordinating Board is responsible for compiling and analyzing legislative appropriations requests from universities statewide. It recommends formulas for funding universities and community and technical colleges.

The agency collects and analyzes financial, performance and enrollment data from higher education institutions to ...

Commissioner of Higher Education Dr. Raymund Paredes sits in the Senate gallery awaiting the end of the session on May 30, 2011.

During the regular session, Gov. Rick Perry’s top legislative priority for higher education was the implementation of a new financing system that rewards universities for graduating more students, not just for getting students into classes. But policy makers have struggled to agree on which outcomes to measure, how to encourage them and if they should alter the funding formulas while budgets are being slashed.

Early in the session, there was much talk about how the time was right to invest in new university campus facilities. But a bill to issue bonds to get projects off the ground never managed to do so itself. Could it get another chance in the special session?

A proposal adopted by the Legislature's budget conference committee Thursday would provide funding for TEXAS Grants for about 33,100 incoming freshmen — far less than the number of eligible students but better than what the House originally proposed.

The most important problems facing the country are economic, while immigration and border security are the most important problems facing the state, according to the latest University of Texas/Texas Tribune Poll.

A bill that could alter the state's formula funding for institutions of higher education to allow some of it to be based on outcomes such as graduation rates rather than simply enrollment has cleared the Senate.

For the latest installment of our unscientific survey of political and policy insiders, we asked some questions about the political atmosphere in Texas, about the job performance of leaders and institutions and about whether immigration is good or bad for the country right now.

Thousands of Texas students have been forced to put their college plans on hold as the Legislature, working on the state budget, determines what level of funding there will be for TEXAS Grants, the state's principal financial aid program for financially needy college students.

Root and Galbraith on a Dallas billionaire's radioactive waste dump victory, Grissom on the passage of eyewitness ID reform, Hamilton on the old grudges bedeviling the debate over higher ed, Philpott on the status of congressional redistricting, Ramsey on Rick Perry's un-campaign for president, Ramshaw on why medical schools are the scorned children of the state's education budget, my session-wrap interview with three veteran Democrats, M. Smith on why Rob Eissler can't pass mandate relief for school districts and Stiles on who's giving what to which Texas candidates in 2011-12 congressional races: The best of our best content from May 16 to 20, 2011.

A panel of higher education and business executives at the University of Texas at Austin reflected high anxiety about the future of research universities — especially in Texas, which has just three of the nation's top research universities compared to California's nine.

A bill by state Sen. Brian Birdwell, R-Granbury, seeks to repeal in-state tuition for students who are not living in Texas legally. He says it will make tuition rates fairer, but others argue that the tuition break ultimately benefits the state.

A bill that streamlines the process for community college students seeking to transfer into a four-year universities was kicked out of the House — passing unanimously — and over to the Senate this afternoon.

Senators today amended an education finance reform bill to allow community college students to carry concealed handguns on campus, increase the cost of cigarettes and allow drastic changes to university administration.

Aaronson on the latest attack on Planned Parenthood, Aguilar previews the sanctuary cities debate, Grissom on a death row inmate's unsuccessful appeal, Hamilton on the UT System's faculty "productivity" data dump, Philpott on the prospect of lawsuits over education cuts, Ramsey on puppies and other distractions, Ramshaw on a tobacco fight, my interview with the presidents of UT-Austin and Texas A&M, M. Smith on a former State Board of Ed member who may have violated state ethics law, Stiles interactively displays the effects of House redistricting and Tan on the Senate budget end game: The best of our best content from May 2 to 6, 2011.

Amid an ongoing, contentious debate about the future of higher education in Texas, Speaker Joe Straus and Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst have created a new Joint Oversight Committee on Higher Education Governance, Excellence, and Transparency.

In recent months, a set of seven "breakthrough solutions" for higher education have been discussed, debated and mulled over in the press, the Legislature, and various academic circles. Arguably lacking in the debate is the voice of a disinterested third party — until now.

At a panel hosted by the Texas Public Policy Foundation, UT president Bill Powers, TPPF senior fellow Ronbald Trowbridge and speaker of the A&M faculty senate Robert Strawser discussed the conservative think tank's seven proposed reforms to higher education. Here is the full video.

An increasingly bitter disagreement over the future of the University of Texas at Austin between University of Texas System regents' chairman Gene Powell and state Sen. Judith Zaffirini is ratcheting up the ongoing debate surrounding higher education in Texas.

At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, I interviewed Bill Powers and Bowen Loftin, the presidents of the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, respectively, about the need for higher education reform, the impact of budget cuts, the predicament of middling graduation rates and more.

At last Thursday's TribLive conversation, I interviewed Bill Powers and Bowen Loftin, the presidents of the University of Texas at Austin and Texas A&M University, respectively, about the need for higher education reform, the impact of budget cuts, the predicament of middling graduation rates and more.